Style over Substance?

[Althea]

I'm just wondering, how many other people feel that video gaming has become less about the actual gameplay and more about how it all looks?

I understand that there are exceptions to the rule, and that ultimately video gaming is about having fun, no matter what the form, but does anyone else believe that the priorities of the industry, and the general public, have shifted to focus on style over substance? And, if you do believe this, what is your view on it? Is this is a good or bad thing?

I grew up with a Gameboy and a Sega Megadrive and, later, an N64 and a PS1. Games, no matter what their genre, would often take me weeks to finish. Games these days, the first time playing through them, I can finish most of them in under ten hours; it is very rare that I find a video game that takes me longer than that outside of the RPG genre, and even those have gotten shorter. The concept of replay value has always been around, so I'm not prepared to accept that as an excuse for why these games have been getting shorter and flashier: I'm as happy to replay long, older games as I am the newer ones, and I find myself enjoying the simpler games more than I do the flashier ones, because they last longer and more effort has clearly been put into them, at least in my opinion.

I have always focused on the gameplay of a game as the primary factor, and I have noticed a steady drop in the quality, variety and originality of gameplay as the years have gone by, whilst at the same time visuals have been getting better and have been used by both the media and the developers alike to sell the product. I don't honestly think this is a coincidence; more development time appears to have been put into the visuals, and this is something that I don't really understand or agree with.

With each new generation, we get updated visuals, and these are the things that are always highlighted in trailers, and used to sell the game. But what of gameplay? How has that changed over the years? Series like God of War, Call of Duty and even Pokemon haven't really changed at all since the first instalment. The core gameplay for the games is exactly the same. Absolutely nothing changes, other than the graphics, which have become more advanced as time has gone by. There is no development or advance in the genre; just the same thing over and over again, looking better and better each time. Yet these things still sell. They're fun, yes, and that is what gaming is all about, but could they not be better if the developers spent more time on the gameplay rather than the visuals? Since we're paying so much for these games, shouldn't we get more out of them the first time we play them? Shouldn't there be a drive to improve gameplay, as well as visuals?

FFXIII is another good example to illustrate my point: whether you enjoyed it or not, the fact is that it prioritized graphics over gameplay. Then we have NieR, a game that has an emotional story and highly varied gameplay, yet was penalized by reviewers for its dated visuals. The Wii is criticised by a lot of people because it isn't as advanced as the 360 and the PS3, but does this really matter?

The general public and media view now seems to be, to me at least, that video games cannot be any good if they don't look the part, and this is something that I find both perplexing and aggravating. Why have graphics become so important, and why have they practically eclipsed gameplay? This is just the feeling I've been getting with the current generation in particular.

 

[Captain Fabio]

Do I sense a double of my opinion?

I agree with you. I grew up on system a generation before you, but the games basic fundamentals were the same. It was all about the gameplay and the mechanics of it. Don't get me wrong, I am not completely against the idea of a pretty game, because you don't really want to play through a game that looks like someone has put a maximum of an hour into the design, but to me, it certainly isn't the most important aspect; one of the lowest to be exact.

I agree with your point on how some games haven't really changed except from the aesthetical side, but I could see that coming when the second batch of games came out on the third/fourth generation consoles.
However, the gamers are partly to blame, crying for more graphically challenging games that will make us stand back and be wowed, trying to immerse us into the game and become one with it.​

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[SentryDown]

I think the whole Style versus Substance debate is entirely subjective and is based on one's opinions on video games. My personal belief is that a video game needs a good story and a good way of presenting said story. For me, graphics is more of a minor point of a video game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying graphics aren't completely necessary but it isn't as important to me as it might be to some other people. Others might disagree.

I believe that the reason why graphics are so hyped these days is because it is getting closer to looking like real life. And I mean real close. If you've seen the trailers for the two big shooters coming out this fall you'd see that it's pretty darn life like with fluid movements and grand textures and everything. We can make a life like world. And because of the media, it's pretty much essential that game developers make their games look good or it won't be as well received. While this isn't always the case, such as FFXIII (which was more of a movie than a video game imo. A good one at that) which despite having gorgeous graphics, had really mixed reception by fans.

So really I think it's a matter of opinion. But the media gets a larger opinion because, well, they're the media.

[on a side note I dont think half of this post had anything to do with the topic, just my nonstop rambling]

 

[Althea]

I agree with you. I grew up on system a generation before you, but the games basic fundamentals were the same. It was all about the gameplay and the mechanics of it.

I think part of the problem is that we're of a completely different generation, so we have different standards and expectations: we can remember the days when graphics weren't particularly pretty, and all that the developers had to impress us with was the gameplay (or the storyline, in the case of RPGs) and people of a younger generation don't have the same memories...and there are more of them than there are of us.

The leap from 2D to 3D was a huge one, but since then things have...stagnated. Nintendo made a good effort to shake things up with the DS and the Wii, trying to change the way people play and opening up some very interesting possibilities, but most third-party developers didn't really exploit the potential of this properly in my opinion, and gameplay hasn't really changed at all for the last three generations, because graphics have just been getting better; they haven't been changing in the same way they had when we were younger. The 3DS and the Wii-U aren't really the same sort of leap the DS and Wii were from the GBA and Gamecube, so I can't see things getting any better for another generation at least...alas.

However, the gamers are partly to blame, crying for more graphically challenging games that will make us stand back and be wowed, trying to immerse us into the game and become one with it.

How much would you say gamers were influenced by the media, though? FFXIII shows that not all gamers are to blame for this at least: as SentryDown said, that split the fanbase right down the middle, and it focused purely on graphics, and I read maybe two or three bad reviews for it. There seems to be a line for a lot of gamers where graphics won't act as a substitute for gameplay, but that the bar differs between people...for me at least, the line was crossed a long time ago.

It IS the fault of gamers for buying the games and focusing almost exclusively on graphics without any complaints about the gameplay, but at the same time the media is the primary source of information for gamers, and the media rarely says anything nasty about games that push the hardware to its limits.

I believe that the reason why graphics are so hyped these days is because it is getting closer to looking like real life.

That's a good point, and it'd also explain why the JRPG genre is in decline, and why Western RPGs like the Elder Scrolls have become so popular. Realistic graphics seem to be the "in thing" at the moment...I guess this is a generation thing, because I can't honestly understand the appeal. Something like Eternal Sonata or Tales of Vesperia, to me, is much more beautiful than something like FFXIII or Call of Duty: Black Ops, and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a work of art.

 

[Oryx]

I think it depends on what games you're looking at. For the mainstream games, graphics are emphasized because that's part of the experience. Although you can still enjoy games with bad graphics, it's still more enjoyable to play a game that's gorgeous over a game that's ugly, all else equal. But in my opinion, indie games are gaining more popularity as well, and those can sometimes even go out of their way to make their game ugly just to prove a point. Most of the time those kinds of games don't seem to care at all about graphics, only the artsy message of the game, so they fall by the wayside.

The shortening of storylines doesn't have to do with graphics at all, imo. That relation isn't there. The shortening of stories has to do with the gamers themselves. While there are still people in their 20s, 30s, and above who are willing to go through 100 hours of a game to finish it, more gamers are in the generation that grew up with the Internet. If they're not seeing done and on to the next thing within a day, they get bored and don't want the game. Long games just...aren't very feasible in the internet generation tbh. Even myself, I love RPGs, long or not, but I can't finish the long ones so I don't buy them. I get bored around 40 hours (more or less depending on the RPG), and if I'm not done before that, I know I never will be. So people like me stop buying long games, so developers stop making them. It's all about online now in games. The single player in 90% of games is just something you have to play through to get to the online, another reason why games are short now.

I can see in the future less emphasis being placed on graphics though. Honestly, there's only so realistic we can get, and we're getting near that limit. When you can see an image of a game and not know it's a game, then there's not much farther we can get into graphics. Then, once everything is basically on the same level, it's all going to be about innovating in different ways.

 

[Jarred0809]

I don't care about the graphics of a game unless it holds the game back. For example, Minecraft just wouldn't be the same if it looked like most other popular games. And the epic level of detail put into games like Skyrim, MGS4, and Assassin's Creed are just bonuses that help you get more into the gameplay.

 

[Althea]

The shortening of storylines doesn't have to do with graphics at all, imo. That relation isn't there. The shortening of stories has to do with the gamers themselves. While there are still people in their 20s, 30s, and above who are willing to go through 100 hours of a game to finish it, more gamers are in the generation that grew up with the Internet. If they're not seeing done and on to the next thing within a day, they get bored and don't want the game. Long games just...aren't very feasible in the internet generation tbh. Even myself, I love RPGs, long or not, but I can't finish the long ones so I don't buy them. I get bored around 40 hours (more or less depending on the RPG), and if I'm not done before that, I know I never will be. So people like me stop buying long games, so developers stop making them. It's all about online now in games. The single player in 90% of games is just something you have to play through to get to the online, another reason why games are short now.

When games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are so popular, I don't think it's entirely due to a shortened attention span that long games have fallen out of favour, although I agree with you to an extent; that is certainly part of it. But I think that if the pacing of the story is good enough - if the RPG itself is good enough - then it'd keep players interested. Xenoblade Chronicles lasts at least 50-60 hours long, and that has proven to be quite popular at least; I mean, there is Operation Rainfall, and I've not seen an overly negative review for it yet, and whilst the visuals are stunning, character models leave a lot to be desired; the Wii could definetely do better.

But then, I'll admit I'm biased: I'm the kind of person who looks for length in games, and I feel very short-changed if I finish games quickly. I've also seen pretty much every RPG plot twist in existence, and they're not hard to guess when you know what to look for, so it's only natural that I think writing is getting worse as well.

I can see in the future less emphasis being placed on graphics though. Honestly, there's only so realistic we can get, and we're getting near that limit. When you can see an image of a game and not know it's a game, then there's not much farther we can get into graphics. Then, once everything is basically on the same level, it's all going to be about innovating in different ways.

No longer able to dazzle us with enhanced visuals, developers will start focusing on improving gameplay again, perhaps? Will we see a return to the old days, where games differentiated themselves through their gameplay, because there was nothing else? Or will things stagnate further, because originality is dead? I can't see this happening for another two generations at least, but the thought is a comforting one nonetheless, and Nintendo give me hope with the Wii and DS that they can change the direction of things.

 

[Kaean]

I do think that games are sacrificing substance for pretty visuals and effects, but at the same time, I can understand why. Sure, back when I was a kid they had no choice but to have poor graphics, so the only thing they had to wow us with was the story line. We grew up with that so to some degree we still expect that.
But other people, mostly the people who grew up with the pretty visuals and such, find it harder to concentrate on a game if the graphics arent as well developed, even if the game has an amazing story line. It's kind of a shame really, but I don't see the trend reversing anytime soon.